Palisades Christian Academy is planning a new $2.2 million early learning center, the school's development director Tim Windemuth says. 

“I know that as far as the state of Washington, early child care is our number one priority,” says Windemuth. 

The building will be constructed at the Palisades campus at 1115 N. Government Way, in west Spokane. Preliminary design plans call for the addition of a 5,400-square-foot building featuring classrooms, activity rooms, restrooms, and play areas, according to commercial preapplication meeting information on file with Spokane County.

About 1,000 square feet of space in the new building will remain unfinished, plans show.

“Right now we’ve got 40 kids in our program,” Windemuth says. “With this new facility, it’ll have four classrooms and we can take 80 kids.”

Mike Christensen and Toni Rosetti, both of Spokane-based Form Architecture Inc., are designing the building. 

The $2.2 million project is being funded in part by a $1.8 million donation from a private donor, Windemuth says, adding that construction will begin when the remaining funds have been raised.

“We’re basically about $400,000 short so we still need to raise that $400,000 to be able to finish the project,” Windemuth says. “But when somebody’s gonna give you $1.8 million you’re gonna fight and you gotta just knock on every door and do whatever you can to come up with that money.”

Windemuth explains that the donor has been working with the school on a vision for the early learning center.

“She said she wanted to build (a space) that would hold a lot more kids, so more kids can transfer right into the school and keep going," Windemuth says.

Founded in 1934, Palisades Christian Academy currently serves kindergarten through 10th grade and has 200 students. The existing school, according to its website, was built in 1984 on about 40 acres of land less than a half-mile west of the Spokane River.